The head of Nemertes Research, most recently in the news for its controversial report about the internet running into capacity problems, has a somewhat bizarre and poorly reasoned column at Network World trying to make the claim that "free" isn't a business model, as a way to say that while she finds it annoying, the DMCA is probably a good thing. Her evidence is pretty weak. She uses the fact that Radiohead stopped offering downloads of In Rainbows as proof that free doesn't work, and says: "the free kind doesn't pay the mortgage." Except... that's wrong. Estimates on how much Radiohead made from the experiment already are in the $6 to $10 million range. That'll pay for quite the mortgage. Furthermore, that doesn't even take into account how the publicity from the offering got more people interested in Radiohead and interested in purchasing scarce goods from Radiohead, such as CDs or concert tickets. Even Thom Yorke from Radiohead has discussed how successful the promotion was.

The real problem is that people keep incorrectly thinking that when folks like myself talk about the importance of "free" that we're saying "give away everything for free and that's that." That's never been the case at all. What we (and plenty of others) have merely pointed out is that you should use "free" as a part of your business model -- and the trick is just figuring out which parts should be free and which you should charge for. Though, if you understand the economics, it's usually not that hard to figure out which is which. You would think that the head of a research firm would understand this -- especially since the column complaining that free doesn't pay the bills is available (whoops) for free online. Does Nemertes Research believe that there's no business model in television broadcasting? After all, TV shows are available for free, and I understand that some TV execs have very nice mortgages that they can pay. The fact is that just about every business model has some free components and some paid components. Getting so focused on the free components seems to blind some people to the possibility of paid components, apparently.

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TaeKwonDood writes "Let's give some credit to the government when they do something right; in this case freeing $29 billion of taxpayer money in NIH research to actual taxpayers. Within one year after peer review, NIH-funded research has to be made freely available on PubMed. A Democratic Congress passed it and a Republican president signed it. This is a tremendous asset to researchers who don't want to have to duplicate research or pay fees for every journal out there. Those media companies getting rich selling journals, like the ACS, don't like it, but everyone else will."

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For years, we've been pointing out that disc-based media was on the way out, but for the industries (mainly music and movies) that make money from selling those discs, the allure of the cash cow was too strong. They've done little to plan for a future without disc-based media -- which is why you see the recording industry in such a freakout these days. In the meantime, the DVD world wasn't much better off. DVDs could have been saved if they'd agreed to a new format early on, stuck to it, and worked on continually adding new and interesting features that made the DVDs, worthwhile -- but instead they've been stuck in a pointless standards battle where no one will win. Thanks to that, it appears that DVDs are starting to follow CDs on their inevitable sales decline. While there may be whining and complaining about how this damages the movie industry, that's not the case at all. The demand for movies is still quite high -- and if the movie industry ever figures out how to stop treating its customers like criminals, perhaps it will come up with business models that work.

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The back and forth over Amazon's infamous one-click patent has gone "back" again. Back in October we noted that, after many years and a few false starts, the USPTO had rejected a bunch of the patent's claims. However, as we noted at the time, the process was far from over. Patent reviews are a ridiculously complex process that take a hell of a lot longer than they should, and involve a lot of back-and-forth, often with many "non-final" rulings that go back and forth before anything is finally established. In fact, Amazon word-smithed the patent and tried to get the patent office to reinstate the claims. Luckily, however, the USPTO isn't buying it and is rejecting the rewritten claims... though, it's still not final. And people wonder why the patent office is overworked and why many people are pushing for a more efficient process to review patents.

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Fohootville, We Hate You writes "According to a new study, internet advertisements work better than television advertisements. Internet video watchers were reported to be 47 percent more "engaged" by the advertising they watched than were traditional TV viewers. The report does not mention whether pornographic internet advertisements were included in the study."

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I wanted a security camera at the front door of my house with two criteria: the camera needed to be wireless and it needed to be accessible for viewing from my computer.

Check out Jake's solar security cam howto. - Link

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It was a bit surprising when Google launched its feature for Google News that would allow those in a news story to comment on the story directly on Google News. After all, wouldn't that just invite abuse? Google would have to make such an effort to make sure that the real people were the ones who wanted to comment that it would easily outweigh any benefit to offering the feature. Even more important, though, is that there's hardly any lack of outlets for anyone who wants to get "their side of the story" out. You certainly don't need Google News. It's not hard to set up your own website or blog and give your side of the story these days. Hell, Google has it's own tools to help you do both of those things already. The NY Times is now checking in on the Google News program almost five months after it launched and apparently the real issue is that no one seems to care about the offering at all. Google has to proactively contact people in various news stories and beg them to comment on Google News, and even then only a very small number of people are doing so. At any one time, there are only around 140 to 150 comments on all of Google News, suggesting that the program is barely used at all. It seems that Google would get better results figuring out how to tie an individual's blog or personal website to a story, rather than begging them to comment directly on Google News.

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StonyandCher writes "IBM has released its second annual set of "Next Five in Five" predictions. The company's crystal ball also revealed that the long-simmering trend toward "smart energy" devices will proliferate wildly. "Dishwashers, air conditioners, house lights, and more will be connected directly to a 'smart' electric grid, making it possible to turn them on and off using your cell phone or any Web browser," a company statement asserts."

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I've been saying this ever since I started blogging.

When you have a product to announce, start a blog (if you don't already have one) and announce it.

Before there were blogs, I wished Infoworld or PC Week would give space to the lead developer of the product, whether he or she is a marketer or technical, even the CEO if they wouldn't assign a former reporter or ad guy to write it, and tell us what you meant when you designed this product. Who were you thinking of and what would they do with it. And where does it go? What does 2.0 look like if it's 1.0 or 3.0 if it's 2.0.

I like it when people like Zuckerberg, Andreessen or Canter write a blog post that tells you without pulling any punches what the intent of the product is, in their own words. I'd like to hear what they said to the team that worked on it. I'd like to use my imagination. That's why I don't like Steve Jobs' keynotes, he's telling you what Eddie Haskell would say about the product to Mrs. Cleaver.

You never get the intent when it's filtered by the press. And many of the people that call themselves bloggers, love them and bless them, aren't anything like bloggers, and they're everything like the bored hired writers that used to work at CNET and Fortune. In fact, many of them are exactly like them (because they are them).

We live in the age of DIY, that means if you have something to say, just say it.

PS: Here's a picture of three child actors from Leave It To Beaver, taken when they're in their fifties. From left to right, Eddie Haskell, Beaver and Wally. Time Waits for No One.

I popped over to check out day 0 at the Berlin Convention Center and everything is getting set up for the launch of the twenty-fourth Chaos Communication Congress. Every year for the past 24 years, hackers have gathered to have congress with the Chaos Computer Club to discuss and hear about the latest issues, challenges, and advancements in the hacking world. Plus partake of Club Mate, the refreshing and invigorating hacker beverage of choice. This conference is the place to be between xmas and new years. With their added category for presentations on making and steampunk theme, it's going to be awesome.

C4, the club out of Cologne, is bringing it tomorrow. Here's Sean Bonner's sneak peak at their steam engine powered teletype machine. - Photoset

I can't wait to spend time with the Das Labor peeps and see presentations! Phillip and I are both here, so we'll do our best to keep you in the loop!

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For all the whining from professional journalists about how the internet is killing newspapers and putting journalists out of work, apparently someone forgot to explain that some of the companies hiring journalists these days. The NY Times has an article noting how ESPN, Yahoo and Sports Illustrated have been slugging it out trying to hire sports reporters from various newspapers, sometimes at three times their existing salaries. Newspapers are complaining that they just can't keep their sports reporters -- which is a fairly amazing statement, because being a sports reporter is a dream job for many people. So, perhaps rather than freaking out about how the internet is "destroying" their business, journalists might want to start looking around at the new opportunities the internet is creating for journalists where they can keep doing what they do best, and actually earn a lot more money.

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An anonymous reader writes "My company is building a new office. As the local IT Guy, I've been asked to design my new office from the ground up. If you were given the opportunity to design your dream office, what features would you include? What things would you try to avoid? I get to determine absolutely everything. The catch? I have to share my office space with all the network equipment. Just 4 standard racks, and all your basic telephone and network wiring. Can anyone help me get started? I have no idea where to even begin."

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Boing Boing reader Matthew Miller says,

My daughter arranged some new toys of hers with our manger scene. The result: a unicorn chaser watching over baby Jesus. She thought it was pretty hilarious and I must say I did too.

Link.

It would appear that the IFPI is following in the footsteps of the US entertainment industry in pushing government around the world to force ISPs to block access to sites and content that the entertainment industry wishes weren't available online. This is the latest in an ongoing effort for the entertainment industry to pretend that the internet needs to conform to the way it wants the world to act, rather than conforming to the way the internet actually works. The push would include requirements such as having ISPs set up massive filters, similar to China's "Great Firewall," to block sites like the Pirate Bay (despite the non-infringing uses of such sites) and also to block any downloads of certain digital audio and video tracks as recorded by a digital fingerprint. The fact that the IFPI is pushing for this is no surprise, given the RIAA/MPAA's similar push within the US, as well as recent efforts in both France and the UK to implement such policies.

There are many, many reasons why such policies aren't just bad, but dangerous to innovation. As we're already seeing elsewhere, the entertainment industry now seems to think that any new innovation that makes it easier to distribute, copy or promote content now needs to get approval from the industry (while also paying a royalty fee). If Hollywood had its way, things like the VCR and the iPod wouldn't even exist -- despite the fact that both devices have helped to provide new life to the entertainment industry. The same will be true of various internet services -- but not if Hollywood succeeds in getting them blocked completely. It's amazing how many times Hollywood will need to relearn this lesson. Every time some new technology comes along, Hollywood freaks out that it might need to adapt -- and yet, time and time again, that new technology has only helped to reinvigorate the industry. Yet, by spreading FUD all over the place, the entertainment industry has become much better at bending politicians' ears to the point that those politicians incorrectly believe that the industry is doomed if it actually needed to adapt and change its business model, despite plenty of historical and economic evidence that those adaptations will come if the market is left alone to innovate.

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If you've ever caught yourself thinking that, well, boy howdy is this wallpaper from blik ever perfect for you! Link. (Thanks, Danah)

How to adapt existing batteries you may have to battery sizes you need.

Instant Battery Adaptors - AA -> D , C -> D with rechargables NiMH and LiPo - Link

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Wired is reporting that information overload is being predicted by some analysts as the problem of the year for 2008. "'It's too much information. It's too many interruptions. It's too much lost time,' Basex chief analyst Jonathan Spira declared. 'It's always too much of a good thing.' Information overload isn't exactly new, but Spira said the problem has grown as technology increases societal expectations for instantaneous response. And more information available, he said, also means more time wasted looking for the right information, whether in an old e-mail or through a search engine."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

PCWorld alerts us to an application filed by Apple for a patent titled "Run-time code injection to perform checks." In a nutshell, it covers an operating system periodically checking running applications to determine whether they're pirated, and shutting them down if they are. Now, it should be kept in mind that the fact that Apple has filed a patent application doesn't prove that it will be used (or that it will be granted). To the contrary, companies routinely patent ideas they never intend to implement just so they will have more ammunition in future patent battles. As Microsoft discovered, systems like the one described in the patent inevitably produce false positives, and disabling a paying customer's copy of your product is much worse than allowing a non-paying customer to use it. Moreover, such tools do little to stop piracy, because inevitably someone finds a way to get around them, and news of the workaround quickly spreads around the Internet. So as a result, these kinds of "anti-piracy" programs mostly serve to annoy paying customers, who have to endure slower system performance and periodic "piracy checks" to verify that, yes, they're still paying customers. Thus far, Apple has differentiated itself from Redmond by declining to incorporate significant copy protection in its operating systems. That's given them a key marketing advantage, and I rather doubt Jobs would want to throw that advantage away in a futile attempt to stop piracy.

Tim Lee is an expert at the Techdirt Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Tim Lee and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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